Monday, November 03, 2008

Monsoon.. The water which kindles the fire.. (ok, this was a tourism ad slogan, but true)

I know hundreds of people who hates monsoons. The monsoons in kerala. The stormy powerful destructive force of nature in full form. Its the time you hunch when you walk, before the mighty rain, holding on to your dear belongings, trying not to get angry splatters. The time your anger surges up due to piling of wet clothes, moist dry clothes, dirty window sills, water on floor, little children bringing the seal of monsoon on their shoes and decorate your home with it...

I have, for my entire life, loved rain. Once i have mentioned to a friend that water is my essential element because i never get enough of it. I have loved monsoon from my childhood, from when i was 5 years or so. I was a very silent and thoughtful kid, not like the current me.I used to love walking in rain and getting my feet wet on the way to school. The first day of school used to be the first day the monsoon makes its mark, in the first week of June. The wait to use the brand new printed umbrella, the excitement of new school days, the new books, the earthly smell of soil when it first rains, the fun of walking in puddles, the cancellation of assembly, standing in the corridor and stretching your hands to catch the rain drops.....i can still feel the sensation of cold water on my hands. Ice cold, and the excited shrieks of friends...
In monsoon period, everyone shifted to indoor games, which i loved. i was a lazy arse and running around always made me feel inferior.

In boarding (6th to 12th), i was in a daze. I don't know what was wrong with me there, i hated the boarding with a vengeance, and it hated me back. I don't remember much of those days, except that the school was closed during June, the first month of monsoon. So i spent that time at home with monsoon special fried eatables and TV. The memories of rain those times are of me not wanting to go to school and sitting in a car with all my belongings and looking at the rain splattering windows on the way and crying.

In college the monsoons were the most happiest times i remember. My college was on a hill and the wind was too heavy. When it rained all of a sudden,we would run fast through corridors for cover, as the rain just drenched the whole lengh of corridors. Most of our study leaves collided with monsoons, its damn difficult to study when it rains and all you feel like is either stare at it or curl under a blanket and sleep. Me and H used to study in the corridors and it was fun watching a calm rain, but it was more fun when the violent rain would come and rip me and H off our comfort and scatter our notes all over and we would run after those laughing to collect them. The rain also made us wear sweaters. In kerala, well, in most parts of kerala, a sweater is like a water cooler in Green land. But the monsoon was so cool that we would dig the sweaters out, and wear them day and night.
Monsoon doubled the effect of laziness in me, making me sleep all day bunking the classes and sleep through the rainy afternoon. And monsoons made me very creative. Many of my legendary letters were written in rainy afternoons by the window.

Later home and now, job..( at the resort, it rains in the sea, which is a whole new vision..)
Till now, monsoon rules kerala as well as my heart. It is an indescribable feeling, Heavenly, as well as Earthly.. I dunno if anyone got that. Just come down, and experience... You will give it better definitions..

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